WELCOME!
I’m the author of a number of biographies, some about people you’ll know (John Milton, Sir Walter Ralegh and William Shakespeare) and others about people you may not know - yet. I’m really proud of my feisty, feminist and accessible accounts of female creatives, including my most influential book, Sounds and Sweet Airs: The Forgotten Women of Classical Music (2016) and, more recently, Eve Bites Back: An Alternative History of English Literature.
A long-time Oxford resident, I've held various posts at the University including Director of the Creative Writing MSt, and remain a Visiting Fellow at Kellogg College. But the truth is that, although Oxford is home, I'm a traveller at heart – whether on night trains, slow boats, on foot or inside a sturdy vehicle complete with roof tent. When I can, I grab my notebooks and laptop and get the words down while discovering new parts of the world.
Events shows what I am up to, but come back here soon to hear more out about an exciting new direction for my writing….
Photo: John Cairns
mentoring
Are you looking for a writing mentor?
Whatever you are working on, from memoir to poetry, screenplays to biography, Oxford Writing Mentors support writers at all stages of their career.
If you'd like to talk about working with me, drop me a line and we can explore how I might be able to help you take your writing to the next level.
Through Oxford Writing Mentors I also have an online course available here. If you're interested in this course, feel free to contact me directly at the email below and I can offer you a discount code!
My writing has significantly developed with Anna as a mentor. She is experienced and knowledgeable about all aspects of literary structure and the publishing process [...] Her encouragement and insight into my work has been invaluable in developing my authentic voice, and boosting my creative writing practice. (NE)
Being mentored by Anna has been the best present I could have given my writing self [...] Anna’s commitment and belief in me and my subject has encouraged me to find my voice and to write confidently - and importantly, to call myself a writer. (JPF)
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LATEST MEDIA
BBC Sounds - Short History Of... Walter Raleigh
BBC Podcast available to listen on BBC iPlayer and Apple Podcasts.
Fanny: The Other Mendelssohn
Documentary Directed by the unheralded composer’s great great great granddaughter. Dartmouth Films
Unputdownable, game-changing crime fiction
The best books of unputdownable, game-changing crime fiction from the Queens of Pulp. View on Shepherd.
IN THE PRESS
"Eve Bites Back isn’t pleading for justice for female writers, it’s indicting a system that has long ignored them and, to some extent, still does… Part polemic, part revisionist criticism, Eve Bites Back, as its title suggests, is sharp and aggressive, a book that will irritate, enlighten, persuade and provoke argument. It’s a work of correction, in every sense of the word."
Washington Post